This invention relates to lubricants for internal combustion engines. More particularly, the invention is directed to a solid lubricant which is introduced into and is dispersible within the liquid fuel system of an internal combustion engine for delivery to fuel-contacting moving parts, to coat and to lubricate such parts. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the pellet includes, in addition to a mixture of metal components, the salt molybdenum disulphide.
The prior art is replete with formulations of many types for the lubrication of engine components, including engine parts in internal combustion engines. Such lubricants have taken various physical forms including oils and greases as well as oil and grease compositions in which solids such as graphite have been dispersed or suspended. In addition, grease-like lubricating compositions which include the lubricant molybdenum disulphide are also known.
Coupled with a wide diversity in the compositions themselves, various different techniques have been invoked in distributing or applying the lubricant to the areas to be treated. Such techniques have conventionally included incorporation of the lubric material in the engine crank case. In other procedures gasoline-soluble liquid phase lubricants have been added directly to the fuel supply. In spite of extensive experimentation, developmental work and research carried out, no technique and no lubricating composition has proved completely satisfactory for the purposes intended. It is, therefore, the aim of the present invention to provide both a new type lubric composition and a new method of applying that composition to internal moving engine parts, particularly those parts associated with the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine.
It is a principal object of the invention to provide, in a lubric composition, an improved physical form constituting a solid pellet which is introducible into for dispersion through the fuel so as to reach and lubricate those components of the internal combustion engine normally contacted by the fuel phase.
It is a related object of the invention to provide an improved lubric composition which is operative to deposit a highly effective lubricating film as a low-friction interface between moving parts of an internal combustion engine including such parts as cylinder walls and piston rings, valve stems and sleeves, and valve guides.
It is an important feature of the invention that the pellet lubricant is effectively dispersed in a fine particulate form and that the minute particles are, thereupon, delivered directly to lubrication requiring surfaces in an internal combustion engine to produce a highly-adherent pressure-resistant film of solid lubricant as a wear detering anti-friction coating.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a fuel-carried composition which is effective to fill in and to smooth surface irregularities of moving metallic components of an internal combustion engine, which components have become worn, pitted, or eroded in use.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a solid pellet, disintegratable within the fuel system of an internal combustion engine, to provide a distribution of fine particulate metallic-like elements effective to produce a plating-like coating on the moving and wear-subjected surfaces of an internal combustion engine.
It is an important feature of the improved solid lubricant of the invention that it is impervious to the deleterious effects of high temperatures and pressures which ordinarily destroy or render liquid lubricants ineffective.
Still another important feature of the improved lubricant of the invention is that it is effective over an extended time period, the availability of the lubric particles being time sustained and being a function of the time-related "erosion" of the lubric pellet in the gasoline tank of the internal combustion engine.
It is a related object of the invention to provide a lubricant which is automatically and continuously dispersed and distributed as needed, without any attention being required from the vehicle operator or the servicing attendant.
Still another feature of the improved composition of the invention is that it is effective to establish a fluid-sealing coating on opposed sliding surface elements in an internal combustion engine, thereby to increase the compression values in the cylinders of such engines.
A related object of the invention is that the solid lubricant minimizes transport of lubricating oil from the crank case past the piston rings to the combustion chamber, thereby reducing significantly air pollution associated with the undesirable combustion and exhaust discharge of oil and oil breakdown products.